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Teaching an old C33 stereo new tricks

876 views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  alex_www 
#1 ·
I just thought I'd share a project that I'm working on. Like so many others, I really hate the appearance of most aftermarket stereos. They're too shiny and don't match the interior of any car out there. But it's always been a necessary evil to get features like an aux jack, iPod integration, or Bluetooth. Sure, you can spend a bunch of money on a CD43, then spend more on a Dice unit so you can plug in your iPod. It didn't sit well with me to be spending so much on 1990s technology. And literally all I ever listen to is music off my phone, so why should I have a head unit that doesn't do that perfectly well?

I've been using some Pioneer unit for about a year now, a concession that I had to make after my original cassette deck finally died. But then I got an idea: why not gut an OEM head unit and fill it with my own electronics? That way, it would look completely stock and I could have modern features and audio quality. It's the best of both worlds!

So that's what I'm doing. I bought a "broken" C33 unit and separated the front faceplate electronics from the rest of the unit. After some playing around, I was able to interface with the display with an Arduino. You can watch the results here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03Dz6Tbl2r4

I would've rather used a C43 or a BMW Professional RDS, but they are just way too expensive. If anybody has a broken one they want to sell for cheap, let me know! I also need a volume knob for this C33 since it didn't come with one.

For now, my next steps are software. The code I used in the video is pretty quick-n-dirty, so I need to clean that up first before implementing menus, buttons, etc._a_
 
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